ENGL 7040 ENGLISH COMPOSITION: APPROACHES AND ISSUES
3:30-6:10 T
Michelle Sidler
ENGL 7040 introduces students to the central concerns of contemporary composition studies and the teaching of writing (especially freshman composition) at the university level. Because composition studies is a field that intersects several others (rhetoric, literary studies, education, etc.), the course will introduce philosophical and theoretical perspectives from many fields, centering around the teaching of writing. Emphasis will be divided between approaching composition studies as a scholarly/academic area and preparing students for teaching composition, though, in reality, the two are interconnected and complementary. The course will prepare you to do advanced research in the field and to plan, prepare, and teach your own freshman writing class.
The course is required of new Graduate Teaching Assistants in the Department of English who have not taken a similar course elsewhere, though it is also open to graduate students from other departments.
Students can expect to complete several short projects, typically responses to the readings and applications to classroom practice. They will also be expected to participate extensively in class discussions